Heraldry and Emblems

The lion known as "the king of the beasts," is the only feline to figure notably in heraldry. Early records show that cats were first used as heraldic emblems during the Roman Empire.

A famous legion, the Felices seniores, bore the cat on its coat of arms, an early pun on the word felis( cat)  and felix (fortunate or happy).

pun was echoed by the popular cartoon character  Felix the Cat (see page 44) that appeared  on badges of U.S. Marine Corps pilots in Word War II.

Tomcat replaced Felix in the 1970 to celebrate the night-flying abilities of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat carrier-borne aircraft - comparisons were made with the cat's night vision.

In the 5th century AD, the king Burgundy, Gundiracus adopt the cat a symbol of liberty and independence.

In due course the cat came to be featured on more than a hundred European coats of arms, including The German Katzen family shield, with a silver cat holding a silver mouse on an azure background, and the Italian Della Gattas' cat couchant.

In Scotland, a home of the wildcat, various branches of the great Clan Chattan displayed the cat on their family crest with a variation on the motto "Touch not the cat but (without) a glove".

These families were fierce warriors and the untamable, aggressive wildcat was an appropriate image for their coat of arms.
 
Images of the cat are not restricted to formal emblems. For example, in Germany the word "katz" is often found in the names of towns and villages, whereas in neighboring Austria it is incorporated in family names, such as Katzler.

In British pubs feline images are adopted in a similar way to heraldic signs. The Red Lion is a popular name, but establishments such as The Cat and Fiddle, or the Cat and Custard Pot are more memorable pub names.

 In France, shop signs incorporating the cat are common, as a result of the banning of coats of arms after the French Revolution. In fact, inns, clubs, cafes, and restaurants have all appropriated the domestic cat.

In North America, a fraternal organization founded in 1892 as the "Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo" adopted the black cat to promote the lumber and forest industry. There are now over 8,000 members, all of whom advertise their products using the cat.